The recent spate of posts on great Goans has prompted me to repost my following write-up from 2001 with some modifications.
The names of Goans who have made substantive original contributions in scientific fields have remained unknown in the Goan community at large. A list of great Goans like those that are being circulated in this forum generates a distorted view of the world which makes it very hard for most people to discern genuine excellence from phony bravado and self-promotion. In esoteric disciplines such as Science, Engineering and Medicine it is especially difficult to see through what might otherwise simply be a fluffy facade. It is a truism in Science that among those who practice it, the most inspired and gifted have an almost obsessive tendency to shun publicity. I would therefore like to introduce to you three scientists of Goan origin, who have succeeded brilliantly in pushing the frontiers of their fields, and attained high recognition and acclaim from their peers all over the world. I will limit my description to what their original contributions have been, and if applicable, what they are doing at the present time. The first such individual that I would like to introduce is Rui J. P. De Figueiredo. Rui de Figueiredo is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He is the Director of the Laboratory for Machine Intelligence, and Neural and Soft Computing at this institution. This laboratory is an internationally recognized center of research and innovation in several areas of computer-assisted signal and image processing. Rui de Figueiredo has made significant original contributions on many aspects of this advanced computational field, and also in the field of Applied Mathematics. The technologies that he has helped develop are being used to produce intelligent machines that can see and recognize real world objects, to construct human-machine interfaces, and to diagnose brain diseases. Vasudev (Nitant) M. Kenkre is a Professor of Physics at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. At this university he is also the Director of the Center for Advanced Studies and the Consortium of the Americas for Interdisciplinary Science, funded by the internationally renowned Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has made many significant original contributions in solid state physics, materials science, light-matter interactions, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, and nonlinear science. Eight years ago he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society "for fundamental advances in the transport of quasi-particles in materials, ultrafast phenomena, disordered materials, and light-matter interactions", as stated in his citation. The genuinely profound theoretical insights that he has achieved, besides advancing our knowledge of the science underlying natural phenomena, are enabling the development of several future technologies, such as nanotechnology, novel manufacturing processes, sophisticated methods of delivery of medications in biological cells, biologically inspired self-assembled materials, magnetic materials with highly controllable properties, and artificial granular (sand) and porous materials (rock). I derive a special sense of pride from Nitant Kenkre's contributions to mankind, for in addition to being a Goan, he and I share the privilege of having attended People's High School in Panaji. Raghunath Mashelkar is an internationally acclaimed chemical engineer who became the Director General of India's Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) in July 1995. Prior to his taking this position, he was the Director of the National Chemical Laboratory, India's premier research lab. As an active scientist, he has made pioneering contributions in non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, polymer reaction engineering, and gel science and technology. For his genuine original contributions to these areas of research, he achieved in 1998 the rare honor of being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) of Great Britain. His FRS citation read, "Raghunath Mashelkar has made outstanding original contributions to polymer engineering, notably in the modeling of polymerization reactors, diffusion in polymeric media, transport studies in swelling polymers as well as non-Newtonian flows. In particular his engineering analysis of secondary flows and particle motion/deformation are considered both innovative and pragmatically important." The new scientific knowledge that he has helped us gain has far-reaching implications for the development of industrial materials and processes, and for the engineering of biomaterials with wide-ranging technological applications. Cheers, Santosh ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Goanet supports BMX, the alumni network of Britto's, St Mary's and Xavier's -- three prominent institutions in Mapusa, Goa. Events scheduled from Dec 16 to 21, 2006 For more details visit http://www.bmxgoa.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------